


What's Right

by ChaosFox



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everyone but Zarkon is pretty much a good guy, Lance just tries to do the right thing, Lotor's General!Lance, Morally Grey Team Lotor, Morally Grey Team Voltron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 22:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12022683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaosFox/pseuds/ChaosFox
Summary: During times of war there is never a clear cut black and white. Sometimes when someone tries to do the right thing, it has unintended bad consequences. Sometimes what you think you are doing is right until it comes into question.Lance begins figuring out these things and questions just whose way is better when bringing peace to the universe and doing good: Team Voltron or Lotor?





	What's Right

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed that morally greyness doesn't get brought up too much so I thought I'd write a fic about the moral greyness on both Team Voltron's side and on Lotor's side. I also bounced ideas with a friend about the bad consequences that Team Voltron be having which will be touched upon in this fic. I don't know if I'll have any shipping in this yet. But when I do decide on a ship or, even if I do one, I'll add it to the tags.

This mission was just like any other to Lance. Get down on the planet, evacuate the people and kick some Galra butt. Same old, same old. This time the planet was known as Amiria, a rocky planet with large, bipedal lizards with four arms that came in various colors as the inhabitants. The Galra Empire, from what Pidge gathered from files she decoded, has been in control of this planet for over a thousand years. Using the people as slaves and taking the most fit to be used as cannon fodder, in the arena or to be taken away on other planets to trade for other slaves. Allura was obviously set on saving these people from the enslavement and so set the coordinates and worm holed them all to the planet once ready.

So here the current Red Paladin was, on the ground providing cover fire for all the civilians with his rifle as they made their way over to the Yellow and Blue Lions for extraction. Though Lance was pretty good with people, in his opinion, it was becoming harder to organize the people into going to the lions and firing shots at the droids coming their way. Luckily one of the inhabitants, a small purple Amirian woman, began helping the with herding the people to the Yellow Lion and Blue Lion. She shouted out orders for others to move in line and follow the person in front of them, even getting some of the bigger lizard people to help create a blockade to keep people on the right path and not getting lost in panic.

Lance was honestly relieved without having to play babysitter anymore and gave his full attention to taking out the enemy units that got too close. Once everyone was safely evacuated from the fight zone, the Cuban moved off and back to the Red Lion to help push out the remaining Galra ships from the planet. He let out a loud cheer as they chased out the remaining forces and going back to destroy the Galra facilities that helped destroy the planet

“Oh thank you Paladins of Voltron!” A green, seven foot Amirian man with red eyes and four arms, Lance vaguely remembered his name being Ajax, cheered as he shook Allura’s hand. “Without you we would have been slaves to the Galra forever! The Amirians are forever in your debt!”

“No need to thank us. We are happy to help all those who have been trapped under Galran rule.” Allura smiled shaking Ajax’s hand.

“Ah yes. About that.” A bit shorter than Ajax, a blue Amirian woman, who went by Eshek, interjected. “We have a lot of debris from the Galra buildings left over. It will take a lot for our people to move them by ourselves.”

“No problem! I can totally move that stuff in a snap with Red here.” Lance bragged as he jabbed his thumb to the lion behind him. “I’d probably have it all done by tomorrow morning by myself.”

“I don’t think that’s possible Lance.” Pidge said, raising a single eyebrow. “Especially since you are still bad at braking with the Red Lion.”

“Hey! You try flying Red! It’s not my fault it goes so much faster than Blue!”

“I could fly Red no problem.” Keith joked. He sent a soft, teasing smile towards Lance who just pouted in response.

“Well it makes sense since you both just run into everything.”

“Hey!”

“We’d really appreciate it Paladin of Red!” Ajax cheered hurrying over to Lance and shaking his hand now. He gave a grin, revealing the sharp pointed teeth hidden in his mouth, as he pulled Lance forward, “We shall even accommodate some quarters for you to sleep in while you help clean up this mess!”

“See guys! I got this- woah!” Lance stumbled as the lizard man kept tugging him forward to show him the different debris littered throughout the area.

Allura sighed, “Well I suppose we can leave Lance to handle this for now. The rest of us shall head back to the castle for now and locate any more planets under Galra rule.”

“Good luck Lance! Let us know if you need help!” Hunk waved to his best friend before he retreated back to his lion and returned to castle along with the others.

“Ha! I don’t need luck!” Lance smirked, before yelping again at Ajax tugging his arm. Sheesh didn’t this guy know to take it easy? “Okay so what needs to be moved first?”

“Ah yes. I was hoping you would figure that out Paladin of Red.” Ajax gave a shrug. “You are the one with the flying lion of metal, you would know what to do best.”

“Oh well sure then.” Lance rolled his shoulders before giving a cocky smirk, “I’ll just do a look around with Red and find out what should be moved first.”

With that the Red Paladin turned on his heel and made his way over to the Red Lion. He already was beginning of thinking of what was needed to be moved first. Larger debris would be best, the lizard people would not be able to move that on their own unlike the small debris. However, choosing which of the larger debris would be most important to move would be tricky as Lance had no idea what any of the entrances that are blocked would lead to the most important part of the building. The had buildings made of mud and the only windows came from the covered metal on the rooftops.

“Ah excuse me.” A familiar voice, but much quieter than he remembered called out. “Paladin of Red?”

Lance turned to his right to see the purple Amirian woman from before approaching him. The blue-eyed teen immediately smiled at seeing the pretty aquamarine eyes of the woman. She was about his height, but considering the giant sizes of her species, she was certainly short.

“Oh hey! You were that lady who helped out with the evac right?” Lance greeted leaning forward a bit and putting on his flirty voice, “No need for formalities pretty lady. The name’s Lance. And I don’t think I ever got your lovely name.”

The lizard raised a brow, or at least the gesture of raising a brow for a hairless being, obviously not expecting that response or completely disinterested in said response. With Lance’s luck, it was probably the latter, “Very well Lance. I am Frioa. I came to talk to you about the debris clearing.”

“Sure thing. What do you need?” Lance leaned back from the woman, taking the serious tone in her voice as a not interested.

“Well I was hoping you can clear the debris in front of the entrance to the food storage and herbal supplies.”

Lance nodded in understanding. Food was a no brainer, every living species in the universe needed it. Even if it was just tasteless food goo. The herbal things Lance figured must be like medicine for the lizard people, and many of them probably had faced injuries during the escape so the medical supplies would be needed immediately.

“Aye, aye pretty lady.” Lance saluted and gave a wink before rushing back to the Red Lion. He clambered into the machine and Lance sighed as the overbearing heat hit his body.

Red always felt like a fire was always burning on the inside of the cockpit compared to the chill that bit through his armor in Blue. Sure it was cold, but it was sort of comforting as well since it was like Blue was trying to embrace him with the cold and her affectionate purrs. It was different with Red. Their bond was strained and was only there because Lance was the only one fit to pilot her with Keith in the Black Lion. The heat felt like it was crawling all over him, trying to burn him away until he was nothing more than ash on the floor, no purrs of affection to break through and assure nothing would happen to the Cuban. All he received was silence from the lion, only receiving a growl of frustration every time Lance failed to brake.

“Well it’s not my fault you are too fast to brake.” Lance grumbled in his thoughts every time he felt the annoyance seep through their bond.

Though it wasn’t entirely the Red Lion’s fault. Lance didn’t want to reach out either for the fear he’d lose the echo of Blue’s bond in his mind. Sure Blue had shut him out without giving him a reason, but she was still his lion. He had bonded with her and he really didn’t want to give her up at all. But it needed to be done, and Blue knew that then.

“Okay Red. Let’s get that debris cleared!” Lance cheered as he sat down in the pilot’s seat that felt a tad too short and Keith shaped to fit Lance comfortably. He seriously needed to stop thinking about the past and learn to live what was given to him. He heard a rumble as Red started up, obviously wanting to get this over with so it could go back to the castle.

They took off into the air, hovering a little above the town so Lance could look down and figure out what was what here. Lance narrowed his eyes as he tried to decipher the Glara text that hung as signs over each building. With how the buildings looked exactly the same over the other, the Cuban had no idea which one would be which when it came to figuring out if it was the medical storage or the food storage. Or even if it was just a plain house some family lived in.

He saw some movement in the corner of his eye and turned the lion to better see Frioa and a few other Amirians waving in front of a building. Lance took that as “Important building, please move debris oh great paladin” and made his way over to pick up the large chunk of metal that blocked the entrance in Red’s mouth. He took back off and placed it on the city outskirts before moving back to where the group was now waving in front of another building. He moved in and repeated the process over and over again as the moved the big ship chunks out of the way.

Though this was helpful, Lance had to admit it would take forever to clean up each and every piece of debris this way himself. Yeah, he’d have to do all the ones that were as tall as the buildings themseleves, but there was still some decent sized ones he knew the Amirians could move themselves, especially with teamwork.

“Hey, I’m good and all,” Lance said though the speaker of his lion. The Amirians on the ground jumped and turned up to look at the lion. “But if we want to clean up all the debris and hazards here, I’ll need some help. Can you guys take care of all the ones you can manage to carry and set up piles where no one could get hurt? Or even put them in the storage buildings? That would save us a huge chunk of time and people won’t get hurt moving around smaller debris while I work on the big ones.”

The Amirians looked at one another before nodding and each of them scrambling off to move any debris they could. Even the children of the lizard people moved to grab some metal out and towards piles already being formed. Lance, feeling quite proud of himself, flew off to grab more giant chunks of blown up Galra ship parts and building pieces.

After a while they had moved almost all the debris out of the way of the city. Lance gave a sigh and smiled as he parked Red in the center of the town and climbed out. It was nightfall and what he assumed to be pretty late too since many of the citizens had disappeared in the buildings, only a few still mingling around and watching the Red Paladin.

“Thank you for your assistance Paladin of Red.” Eshek spoke with a small smile on her lips once Lance exited. “We have arranged your room. We hope it is to your liking.”

“So long as it’s got a bed I think I can manage.” Lance stretched his arms.

Eshek smiled wide, showing off her sharp teeth before turning around and moving forward. She swished her tail as a gesture for Lance to follow and the Cuban did so without complaint. Blue eyes gazed over the buildings of mud and clay that had looked so primitive next to the once standing Galran buildings. The duo had passed through an old trading area which Lance speculated hadn’t been used in quite some time given the run-down stands filled with cobwebs and empty baskets. Some of the stands were collapsed even and any items that could be salvageable were covered in sand or dust.

“So how long since this place has been used?” Lance asked, pointing at one of the stands.

“I-“ Eshek paused. She thought it over before shrugging. “We have not used these in generations I believe.”

“In generations? So you guys don’t know what a market is?”

“A market? It is like trading yes?” Eshek tilted her head curiously, dark blue scales atop her head moving with her. “The Galra have always given and controlled the supplies we had so we had no need for such a thing.”

Lance stared at Eshek in shock. They had no idea on how to run a market? But every planet they have been on had some sort of idea of trade or give and take among villagers. He shook his head as if to shake the worry off. They still understood trade. They’ll be fine. Hopefully.

Eshek’s amethyst eyes looked over Lance in confusion before she shrugged her shoulders and continued to guide Lance over to the biggest building in town. It towered over the other building and must have been five stories high compared to the other building usual one. Lance gaped in awe when he entered as he looked over the beautiful woven fabrics hanging along the walls. Various colors and shades woven together in intricate patterns were spread evenly apart along the walls and hanging on the ceilings.

“Woah.” Lance breathed as he touched one of the blue rugs, woven to make light blue rain drops hit and splash against a darker blue ground. “Did you guys make these?”

“Ah yes! This is something the Galra allowed us to keep doing. We could make as many of these as we want so long as we gave them some of our rugs to them in exchange for the fabric.” Eshek answered happily, “It is one of the things our people are very talented in making them. They can be used as either décor or for sleeping purposes. The Galra had been smitten by them.”

“These are beautiful!” Lance complimented letting his hand drop and following Eshek again towards a room next to the stairs.

“We are glad you like them Paladin of Red. We can send some of them back with you as thanks for saving and helping our planet.”

“Really? Awesome!” Lance grinned widely, already ready to curl up into the soft fabric when he got back to the castle and caught up on his beauty sleep. “You wouldn’t mind one for each of us would you?”

“Anything for the Paladins of Voltron.” Eshek said as she opened the door to the room and letting Lance inside.

Lance gawked at the room in front of him. He had expected some sort of barren room with a few blankets to suffice as beds but this was pretty much the exact opposite. A large bed laid in the center with a few of the beautiful fabrics outside laid out neatly in front of it. Pillow that looked fluffy and soft with a light lavender color came in various shapes and sizes at the top of the bed. More of the decorative fabrics hung along the walls and small candles that smelled faintly of cinnamon burned lightly on a small shelf made of clay.

“This is my room?” Lance asked excitedly, a wide smile across his face as he hopped onto the bed. The blankets and bed felt so soft that the Red Paladin was sure he’d sink into them. Now this is the kind of room a defender of the universe should have!

“Of course.” Eshek answered. “This room was used by all the elite Galran officers that came and went on our planet.” Upon Lance’s disgusted face Eshek continued, “We always changed the blankets and sheets so do not worry about laying in the same kind of bed as a filthy Galra.”

“I was honestly just disgusted by the thought of a sweaty general having the same blankets as me.” Lance’s nose scrunched up in disgust as he sniffed the blanket just in case. Good. No sweat smell here.

“Is there anything else you need Paladin of Red?”

“Nah. A goodnight’s sleep is all I need.” Lance yawned as he stretched his arms. “You guys still need someone to help pull out the rest of the metal covering the windows tomorrow so I need all the rest that I can get.”

“Very well.” Eshek nodded her head before closing the door. Lance only knew she had left because of the sound of her clawed feet scrapping against the ground as she walked away.

Lance gave a sigh as he rolled onto his back and sat up. He took off his armor and laid it against the ground before laying back onto the bed. He smiled and closed his eyes. He could get used to being treated like this.

Lance woke up to the sound of yelling first thing in the morning. He groaned as he raised his head, hand instinctively moving to comb his bed head. He groaned in annoyance because it was way too early in the morning for this and can’t he get his beauty sleep for once?

The Red Paladin rolled out of the bed with grumbles of complaint as he put on his armor. He marched out of the room, a pout on his face as he made his way over to where he saw a large group of Amirian people arguing something. Lance raised an eyebrow in curiosity and decided to save his complaints and see what the problem was.

“What seems to be the problem here?” Lance asked over the yelling.

The Amirians stopped arguing and turned to the Red Paladin. Lance was able to squeeze through some of them towards the round table in the middle of the room where Eshek, Ajax and other Amirians were sitting and glaring daggers from one side to the other.

Eshek turned to the Cuban and gave that same sharp toothed smile as yesterday, “Ah Paladin of Red, you joined us just in time to help us with this discussion.”

“This discussion shouldn’t even be a thing!” Ajax growled and the people on his side nodded in agreement.

“I agree but you keep pushing for the wrong decision!” Eshek spat, anger flaring up in her eyes.

“Hold up for a second.” Lance said looking between the two sides in confusion. “What’s the problem?”

“We are trying to decide who the new leader should be,” Ajax hissed and glared at Eshek. “But she thinks she should be it. She couldn’t lead to save her life! She can’t even come up with any good ideas!”

“Oh, and like you are any better!” Eshek countered. She stood up, slamming her hands onto the table and her head scales raising in agitation. “You are nothing but a coward who leaves things for others to solve!”

“Okay how about we all just calm down.” Lance raised his arms and made a calm down gesture.

“Tell us Paladin of Red!” Eshek persisted, turning towards the Cuban in question. “Who do you think will make the better leader?”

“Me?” Lance echoed as he pointed to himself.

“Yes you! As a Paladin of Voltron your choice must be the correct one!” Ajax agreed with a nod of his head. “Though I am sure you will make the best decision.”

“Uh…” Lance gulped. He had no idea who would make the best or even if they were leader types. “Why not work together?”

“Work? With him? Ha!” Eshek sneered. “Not in a million deca-phoebs!”

“For once I can agree with you.” Ajax snorted before turning back to Lance. “Now please Red Paladin. What is your decision?”

“Well… Uh…” Lance mumbled. He was never put on the spot for choosing something like this before. In all honesty he doubted either of them were fit for the role of leader but he knew they would never take that for an answer. He thought it over for a minute before shrugging his shoulder, “I don’t know in all honesty. I’ll go get Shiro or Allura and they can help with this decision.”

Lance felt a shiver go down his spine as the two Amirians narrowed their eyes at him, obviously not liking the answer he gave them. What were the expecting? You can’t just drop stuff like this on him! Plus Shiro and Allura were much more fit for choosing a leader since they are well, leaders.

“It is fine Paladin of Red.” Eshek gave a forced smile that had too much danger in it for Lance’s liking. “We do not wish to keep the Paladins here longer then they need to.”

“Yes. I am sure we can settle this ourselves.” Ajax showed the same dangerous grin and Lance took a step back as he headed towards the door.

“Still… I’ll get one of them.” Lance urged before he turned around and walked briskly out the door. He kept his gaze straight forward and forced a smile at the locals he passed that were prying the metals off the windows.

Once he was in the finally in the final stretch to Red, he sprinted forward and quickly got into the lion. He sat down in the pilot’s chair and took off quickly, for once being grateful for Red’s incredible speed that nearly jerked him out of his seat. He flew back towards the still awaiting castle and pressed the button to link to its communication system.

“Lance?” Allura’s charming face flickered to life on the one of Red’s many screens, a single white eyebrow raised in confusion. Lance could see the others shuffling around behind her as they got to their own seats in the control room, showing that they all had barely just woken up as well. “Is something the matter?”

“Uh.. The Amirians are having a bit of an issue with deciding who is going to lead.” Lance explained.

“Lance I am sure they can handle that decision themselves.” Allura tried to reassure. “It is best not to interfere with their own affairs too much. They would not truly have freedom if all the choices were made for them.”

“I know but maybe give them a little nudge?” Lance persisted. He had a bad feeling about what would happen if this was left alone, those smiles he saw on Eshek and Ajax were not comforting at all.

“We’ve already completed what we needed to do.” Shiro interjected, his face popping up on another screen. “We have other distress signals we need to address as well. Allura is right, they should be able to handle and figure this out themselves.”

Lance blinked in shock at Shiro’s words. Okay so Shiro pretty much never took Lance’s side but this was something the Red Paladin would think the Japanese man would at least agree on. Shiro was his hero for good reason, because he was a hero. He was the kind of guy who would go beyond what was necessary to make sure everything was good in the world, not just finish a mission and then say it’s fine like Lance did with his math homework even though he knew some answers were wrong.

“Are you sure Shiro?” Lance pressed lightly, his question coming off as mere curiosity though he was more insistent about the subject on the inside.

“I’m sure Lance.”

Lance shuffled his feet from where he sat before nodding his head. This was Shiro the hero, he always knew what was best for the team. Even if he wasn’t the current Black Paladin, he still held as much authority as if he still was.

“Ah! Another distress beacon. Looks like some Galra are invading a peaceful planet!” Pidge’s voice leaked through Shiro and Allura’s comms.

“We have no time to waste. Lance please return to the castle.” Allura commanded before both her and Shiro’s flickered off the screen.

Lance sighed in defeat, he wasn’t going to win in an argument if both Shiro and Allura agreed on something. Plus, they were probably right if they both agreed on it. He flew Red closer to the castle before turning his ocean blue eyes back to the planet behind him before giving a decisive nod. The Cuban would come back just to check up on how things were coming along for the Amirians when he got the chance.

Hopefully he took those smiles the wrong way.

**Author's Note:**

> Just to add on at the notes to the top, I do not mean to vilify Team Voltron and make them out to be such terrible people you see sometimes in Lance-centric fics. If I do vilify them or if you have tips on how I can characterize them better I would love to hear it!


End file.
